AEE 2700: What Would You Do for a Million Dollars?

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2700. What would you do for a million dollars? Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English?

We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.

Today, learn about a cultural phenomenon that's happening in the US involving bounties and learn how to turn this topic into a robust debate or a conversation with your friends in English.

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Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Lindsay. How are you? I'm doing great today, Aubrey.

I have a question for you, though, I'd like to start with. Let's hear it. Would you ever shave your head even for a million dollars? Like if I were to give you a million dollars to shave your head, would you do it?

Absolutely. In a heartbeat. I would shave my head. But question is, would you you have this beautiful hair? Nothing to write home about. But for a million bucks, I think I still would honestly retire.

You know, it grows back. It's fine. I'll take the money. I agree. I'm really curious, everyone out there, how would you answer questions like these are asked often in American culture.

I wonder if it's popular as well around the world, where you'll ask like, what would you do for a million dollars or something like this? Would you shave your head for a million dollars, right? But crazily, it's becoming less of a hypothetical. Yeah.

There are these new bounty websites that are starting where, you know, prices are put on risky actions, like, for example, getting a tattoo advertisement on your forehead, something really, it's like, that's a tough choice to make. Even for a million dollars, I wouldn't tattoo something on my forehead. No, tattoos are semi permanent. I mean, you have to and it's expensive to get them removed and on your face.

Oh, I wouldn't do it. And there could be scarring and it's extremely painful. So yeah, it's interesting. We're going to dive into this. What is a bounty?

How else does it come up in culture and kind of talk about the ethics of this because it's very controversial. Yeah. And we have a couple of examples of bounties when it comes to wildlife and that kind of thing. So Abri, what is a bounty?

Let's get started there. All right. So this is a monetary reward offered by a government corporation or an individual. And in this case, it's cryptocurrency that's being paid.

So that's kind of interesting as well. But traditionally, bounties have existed for a long time. There's the newest Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu is about a bounty hunter, The Mandalorian. So he's offered money to bring in a criminal.

Okay. Yeah. That's how you hear about it the most, the term bounty, when they're looking for a person, right? Right. Or Dog the Bounty Hunter. Have you ever seen that show?

That's an older show. It's someone who would go and find people who had skipped bail and they would be paid bounty money for that. Interesting. And now there is some more examples here.

I know down in Florida to shift over to wildlife, right now there's an overpopulation of Burmese pythons. So a few years ago, I saw this on some documentary on TV once.

They have a bounty on pythons. So they're going out and paying citizens that are just brave enough and have a big enough – I don't know, machete or whatever they need to go and bring in your recovered, bring in dead pythons. And I think they're paying around a grand per python, but these are like huge snakes.

They're earning their money to put their life at risk to try and catch those snakes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's also existed in the Mountain West in Idaho, Montana, maybe Colorado.

There have been bounties on wolves back when there was a extreme overpopulation of wolves and it was about a thousand dollars, fifteen hundred dollars for someone to kill a wolf. But now they've overhunted them and they're endangered now. So it's kind of it can swing either way. Right.

Yeah. In Colorado, they're repopulating the wolves now. And this was a ballot issue in the last couple of years, bringing the wolves back. And it becomes very political, right, when you get into these wildlife issues.

But that's one way that bounty is applied. What else do we need to know here, Aubrey? Yeah. Well, this is interesting for anyone out there who watches the show Black Mirror.

On Netflix, I'm a huge fan myself. But in the most recent season, season seven, episode one, this what has sort of come to life here is fictional in that show, where there are these bounties for risky actions, right? And someone would claim it online and be paid to do that. And now this is really crazy that you're seeing that this could actually happen in real life, right?

So there was a CNN article we saw called The Website Where Crypto Promoters Pay People to Tattoo Ads on Themselves. This was by TM Brown in June of 2026. And we kind of looked in this and sort of wanted to share about it.

There's a chance that this could become popular and there could be more sites or maybe it'll go away. That's my hope. I'm not really in support of this. It seems like a terrible idea.

Yeah, it does seem kind of, I don't know, like it belongs in a movie or something. Honestly, yeah. Right. Let's keep it in Black Mirror and not in real life, please.

Yeah, for sure. Along with all of the technology in Black Mirror, it's better to have it be in a TV show and not actually real. I still haven't seen Black Mirror. I'm going to have to see that show.

Every episode is different technology and how it affects people and society and relationships. But usually by the end, you're like, this technology should never exist. Yeah. Okay.

Good to know. Do you have any quotes from – I mean like what are people – what do academics think about this? Yeah, this is interesting. So in that article, they had interviewed a couple of different people and one of them was William Kavanaugh.

So he's a theologian and a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University in Chicago. What did he say, Lindsay? Okay. Well, he said this is a clear case where people are being instrumentalized and dehumanized for the sake of personal profit.

Yeah, I mean, pretty much, right? That's really, I really agree that it's the dehumanization, right? You're treating someone like a product, like a pawn. And even if it's for money they need, it's still you're taking their dignity from them for that.

Yes. Mm-hmm. yep and also also interviewed yeah new york governor kathy hochel well so she had been she had publicly written on x this she wrote offering a bounty on the first bill introduced to ban this dystopian nightmare i loved this phrase like so she clearly really doesn't approve and then kind of a joke here but she's using the term bounty to make a joke of it right Exactly.

She's joking and saying she'll give a bounty to anyone who can shut this down, right? And then a spokesperson for her office said, any business model that rewards people for targeting, harassing, or endangering others should alarm everyone. And I really loved that statement because that's the thing. Even if you're paying someone to do it to themselves, you're still endangering people, right?

Getting someone to harm someone else themselves. And that really should alarm us all. That really should. You're making the suggestion, you're putting the idea in their head.

Oh my gosh. So when we come back from our break, we're going to talk about what does this mean for our listeners in terms of a connection topic, of a conversation topic. I could very easily see this coming up in a conversation with a friend, with a native speaking friend.

I've already spoken to people about this. As soon as I saw that article, I'm like, oh, this is interesting. And it's going to be, I don't know how controversial it'll be, but there will be some people who agree that people should be free to do things like this if they choose for a payment. So you're definitely not going to, you might be surprised even what some of your friends think.

Yeah, exactly. People would have different opinions on it. So we're going to take a quick break and come back and we'll get into how do you form questions to talk about this? Okay, good.

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Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash F-L-U-E-N-C-Y-S-C-O-R-E. All right, Aubrey, we're back from break. So what would be some conversation starters if we do want to tell our friends about this and have a conversation to see what they think?

Yeah. So we have offered this sort of pro tip in the past that now that you've heard this episode, you can say, you know, I heard about this. I listened to a podcast. And that's such a great entry point.

So for example, you could say, I heard a new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions. What do you think about that? And then if they haven't heard anything, they might just say, what? I haven't heard about that.

And you could provide a little more detail. Or if they have, then that's the beginning of a really interesting discussion. And the next one is, have you heard it on a podcast? You heard about it here.

And this is incredibly common. A couple of constructions around something you heard on a podcast. First one is, I listened to a podcast about a website where people pay cryptocurrency for tattoos. Have you heard about that?

But Aubrey, I also hear people saying, I was listening to a podcast and blah, blah, blah. XYZ. I hear a lot of people use that construction. I was listening to a podcast and...

I heard this or I learned this. I was listening to a podcast and they talked about this new website offering bounties. Absolutely. And I love, I have a lot of friends who that is how they start their conversation.

Either I read an article or I was listening to a podcast and often it's the best way to bring up something that, and you don't have to share your opinion right away or commit either way. You're just asking what they know about it, what they think. Yes. So that's a really natural way to start this topic.

What else? But we have this other interesting thing. So questions about extreme things you might do for money are also fun conversation starters. We do this a lot in American English, right?

So we're going to share a few that are pretty benign, pretty harmless that you could potentially ask someone. And these always lead to interesting conversations.

Yeah. I mean, I'll just start it off with a question. Aubrey, would you hunt for pythons for $1,000 each? Would you do that? No, I wouldn't even do that for a million.

I think I would definitely probably lose my life. I mean, I'm not an expert. I would very likely just be like drowned. Yeah. Death by Python. Death by Python.

I think if I were like a large man and I had, you know, I had skills like outdoor, outdoorsman skills, I might do it. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know.

For a million. Yes. Maybe for a million. I would maybe try for a million. Oh, interesting. What about eyebrows? This comes back to the hair thing. Would you shave your eyebrows for a million dollars?

Yes. Again, I know it really, you know, it's not the end of the world and more and more these days. Yes. Eyebrows grow back. You can draw on eyebrows.

You can totally draw them on. I'd probably do that for a hundred dollars. Maybe a thousand, maybe a thousand. Yeah. Everyone has their own, you know, threshold here, but I would probably do it for a million or a thousand, maybe a thousand and then take some time off so I wouldn't have to be on camera.

Right. Yes, exactly. And we also leave these more open ended. You could say something like, what would they have to pay you to wear the same outfit every day for a year or something like that.

And it's just more hypothetical. And then my friends and I do this fun thing where someone will throw out a number and then someone else will say, oh, I'd do it for this much. You're like, go down until you get as low as you're willing.

You start to understand people's standards, right? What they'll tolerate. Someone says a million and someone else says, I'd do that for a thousand. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Well, how into coffee are you these days, Aubrey? Would you give up coffee for a million dollars? Ooh, forever. I love coffee. That would be hard, but maybe, maybe for a million dollars, I could be a tea drinker.

I think I would. For a month, for a year? Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Month, a year. I probably would. I would probably just get into like matcha or green tea or something and just call it a day, you know, just find something to replace it with.

Exactly. I'm over it. Let's do a role play here where we're showing how this might look in a full conversation. You and I are meeting for coffee here, actually.

Oh, well, there you go. We can't give up coffee in that case. Right. All right. I heard a new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions.

What do you think about that? Oh man, like on that Black Mirror episode? That definitely didn't go well. Yeah, definitely concerning that people are taking unnecessary risks just for money or maybe for internet fame.

Right. What about you? How much would they have to pay you to get an advertisement tattooed on your face? On my face? Wow. I don't think they could pay me enough.

Same here. Even if it were temporary, I'd have to think long and hard about it. Yeah. Clearly we have standards. Exactly. They're maybe not the highest, but they're there.

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, this first phrase you used, right? I heard a new website allows people to offer a bounty for risky actions. So, or you could use one of these others.

I was listening to a podcast and they were sharing that bounties are being offered, right? Lots of ways you could lead into this conversation. Yes, exactly. Any other key phrases we need to take away from this role play, Aubrey?

Anything we need to remember? We did both here. I said, what about you? How much would they have to pay you to get an advertisement tattooed on your face?

And there are a few ways to construct this, right? We also shared, I could say... For a million dollars, would you do that? Would you? There's a lot of interesting ways to ask.

But it's interesting because depending on the relationship and how well you know your friends, some people will get more personal with these. The ones we've shared today are really safe, are not going to offend anyone, right? Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

For sure. So the point is here, guys, it's a connection topic. So it's kind of controversial. You'll learn a lot about your friends, about their ideas, right?

In terms of, I guess, their standards, or maybe they're just joking when they give their answer anyways. But check it out as a connection topic. Bring up these interesting things that you read in the news, because this is what we talk about as native speakers. Right.

Anything that's a little bit controversial is always going to make for a better conversation. Not everyone will agree here. So it is interesting to find out what your friends think and be ready to pivot away. If someone's uncomfortable, if you both really disagree, you never know, right?

Be ready to change the subject if necessary. And it could potentially turn into a more interesting conversation around personal freedom, right? Because guaranteed some friends are going to say personal freedom. That's a big part of American culture.

That's a big theme in our politics, right? Being able to do what you want. And then you might get into the founding of our country or what are the laws in your country and the rules and the values. So there's a lot here, Aubrey, beyond just the exact website that we're talking

Absolutely. That's such a good point. Whenever there's something controversial, it can easily link to other controversial issues, depending on how deep you want to go, how much you want to get into it with that person and how comfortable you are with controversial issues.

Yes. Good stuff. Well, thanks for being on the episode today, Aubrey, and I'll see you next time. All right. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Okay. Bye.

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